Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a remarkable and unique common platform where organisation, civil society and government representatives can contribute and collaborate to tackle the biggest challenges our society faces.

The SDGs were agreed by all countries at the United Nations in September 2015 and came into effect in January 2016. The 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators are part of a broad agenda that provides a set of clear measurable targets to improve sustainability performance globally. These goals were developed based on the pillars of: protecting our natural resources and climate for future generations; ensuring dignity, equality and prosperity; fostering peace and inclusive societies; and promoting partnerships.

RMIT's Pledge

RMIT recognises the important role the education sector can play not only supporting the SDGs agenda, but actually promoting and contributing to the achievement of all 17 Goals.

We support, promote and contribute to the SDGS through:

Learning and Teaching - Equipping the next generation with skills, knowledge and understanding of sustainability challenges and opportunities.

Governance and Operations - Making sustainability an organisational priority, incorporating best practices of sustainability management into our business and regularly monitoring and reporting on our contributions to the SDGS.

Research - Progressing research that advances the sustainable development agenda.

Leadership - Use our expertise, leadership and capabilities to promote the SDGs and drive change to achieve them.

RMIT-wide SDGs project

RMIT, represented by its Sustainability Committee, is currently undertaking an ambitious and innovative project to raise awareness of the SDGS across the academic areas of the University and demonstrating our capabilities in partnering with industry, government and community to achieve them.

The RMIT-wide SDGs Project, initiated in June 2018, aims to improve University accountability in relation to its contributions to the SDGs. To do so, an innovative approach has been undertaken to map, measure and communicate our contributions to the SDGs. This will be reported annually through our website and sustainability report.

The project supports the efforts that educational institutions are making to deliver the goals, demonstrate their impact and support the sustainable development agenda internationally and nationally.

Select a goal to discover examples of our contributions to the SDGs:

Our commitment

To express our commitment to transform RMIT into an organisation that models institution-wide excellence in response to local, national and international calls for education to play an influential role in helping shape a sustainable future, we made a publicly commitment through the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The RMIT Commitment to the SDGs can be viewed here.

We are part of the SDSN Australian/Pacific initiative to engage universities to support and contribute to the SDGs and agreed to:

Support and promote the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Undertake research that provides solutions to sustainable development challenges.

Provide the educational opportunity for our students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.

Contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring our campuses and major programs are environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive.

Report on our activities in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

We recognise the enormous challenges the world faces to build a sustainable future, as well as the importance of the SDGs in driving change and channelling efforts and resources to construct a more sustainable planet.

SDGs Related News

The GCNA and RMIT are hosting a roundtable discussion on the SDGs - the various reporting trends and frameworks, the results of research into how the top ASX150 are reporting on the SDGs, how business can track and measure progress against the SDGs and hear from sectoral leaders on the SDGs.

"A round table on developing an innovative performance measurement and reporting framework for UN sustainable development goals (SDGs)", led by Prof. Nava Subramaniam, is one of the thirteen projects funded under the 2019 Capability Development Fund (CDF) scheme.

A new article of Angel Calderon discusses the University Impact Rankings 2019 published by Times Higher Education to measure the extent to which universities are working towards fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Australian APEC Study Centre at RMIT University is hosting a workshop on Understanding Child Labour in Agriculture on 8th – 9th April 2019. The workshop will be held at RMIT’s Melbourne Campus in the heart of the Melbourne CBD.

Sustainability experts say the Victorian government’s circular economy strategy will sink if not opened up to business and innovation sectors as an economic development plan, rather than a narrowly-defined waste management issue.